Metro's board of directors recently hired Sacramento search firm Mercer Group to find a replacement for White, who signaled two years ago that he would retire only to stay longer. But a search to replace the transit agency's 15-year leader is officially underway.

"This board has been sweet-talking him to stay on as long as we could," said Metro board member Dene Bustichi, who is leading a search committee for White's replacement. "I don't know that Metro there would be anywhere near where it is without someone like him as a leader."

White, 65, has agreed to stay at Metro's helm through 2014, or whenever a replacement is found.

"I'll stay as long as they want, but if they find someone sooner than the end of 2014, I'll do that too," White said.

White's stewardship of the $38 million agency, which includes 244 employees and 5.3 million annual riders, is widely praised. He has overseen the conversion of Metro's fleet of busses from diesel to compressed natural gas and the expansion of Highway 17 bus service, and construction on a new $18 million bus operations center is underway.

White is also a past chairman of the American Public Transportation Association, originally brought to Santa Cruz partly to help dig the agency out of a hole it got in with the federal government for claims related to the 1989 earthquake. He is still active with the agency, working with the group to restore federal bus funding cuts put in place by Congress.

The replacement search will be nationwide, with Bustichi saying he hopes to make a hire in late spring or summer 2014. The $176,000 job is potentially attractive not only for its Santa Cruz locale, but due to a dedicated 1/2-cent local sales tax that supports Metro operations.

White himself was hired from Vancouver, Wash. During his tenure there have been fluctuations in service due to funding shortfalls and a brief 2005 strike, but overall service has been steady. While transit agencies elsewhere in the Bay Area have recently dealt with threatened strikes, labor peace prevails in Santa Cruz.

Bustichi said the search will also include a new assistant general manager, a position that hasn't been filled for the last several years. But that will come after a new general manager; Bustichi said the board wants the new leader to have a chance to weigh in on who their deputy will be.

Bustichi also said one priority is to find someone who can locate and operate the funding levers critical to any transit operation.

"One of things we have on our desired list is someone with legislative experience, such as Les has," Bustichi said. "Someone who has a proven track record of finding money, or in creating new revenue sources."

As he prepares to leave office, White is also pushing Metro forward in new directions, including planning for the redesign of downtown Santa Cruz' much-maligned Pacific Station. The agency is also looking at a makeover of its Watsonville transit center.

White also said the addition of articulated buses to serve UCSC is probably very close, and Bustichi added that Metro is even looking into the possibility of an electric bus line.

"There's a lot of things on the horizon," White said.

In addition to Bustichi, board members John Leopold, Daniel Dodge, Bruce McPherson and Lynn Robinson are on the search committee. Bustichi said once the final list of prospective candidates is honed, he hopes to have each one meet with members of the public.